Byelections set for two vacant B.C. seats

Byelections will be held Feb. 2 to fill two B.C. legislature seats left vacant after MLAs ran in the recent federal election.

Former Vancouver-Mount Pleasant MLA Jenny Kwan resigned her provincial seat July 8 and was elected MP in the NDP stronghold of Vancouver East in the Oct. 19 election.

Former B.C. Liberal MLA Doug Horne gave up his Coquitlam-Burke Mountain seat on Aug. 14 to run for the Conservatives, and lost the federal seat of Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam to Liberal Ron McKinnon.

With the two vacancies, the B.C. Liberals hold 48 seats and the B.C. NDP 33, with two independents, Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington and Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA Andrew Weaver.

B.C. NDP members have nominated Jodie Wickens, executive director of the Autism Support Network, to run in Coquitlam-Burke Mountain. Melanie Mark, who worked in the office of the Representative for Children and Youth, is running for the NDP in Vancouver-Mount Pleasant.

The B.C. Liberals have nominated Joan Isaacs, an investment advisor, for Coquitlam-Burke Mountain and Gavin Dew, a communications consultant, for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant.

The B.C. Green Party has nominated Pete Fry, a web and communications specialist, for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant and Joe Keithley, a musician and former member of the band D.O.A., to run in Coquitlam-Burke Mountain.